The present invention generally relates to a portable electronic device. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for automatic enablement of a rear-face data entry in a mobile device.
Various mobile devices such as cellular phones, tablet devices (e.g. tablet personal computers), portable multimedia players, and navigation systems increasingly utilize touch-screen virtual keyboards for text and other data entry. A typical “smart-phone” device or a tablet device in the market is either equipped with a physical keyboard or a touch-screen virtual keyboard on a front surface of the device. These devices typically suffer from some space limitations on the front surface for positioning the physical keyboard or the touch-screen virtual keyboard, because a good portion of the front surface may be dedicated to display of images and graphics. The space limitations on the front surface may result in ergonomically inferior keyboard and other inconvenient data entry configurations, examples of which include a size reduction of each key (i.e. on a physical keyboard or a touch-screen virtual keyboard), a crowded data entry interface, and a reduced number of functional keys. If the size of each key is reduced significantly and/or if the data entry interface is overly crowded, a user may not be able to perform “touch-typing” or all-finger typing ergonomically possible on a full-size keyboard.
It is interesting to note that mobile devices in the market today do not utilize their rear surface areas, because the rear surface areas are typically only used as battery covers. If a designer of a mobile device utilizes a rear surface for accommodating a physical keyboard or a touch-screen virtual keyboard, the space constraints of placing a keyboard on a front surface of the mobile device may be alleviated. For example, a landscape aspect-ratio configuration of a keyboard on a rear surface of the mobile device can accommodate a full-size or larger keyboard as physical keys or touch-screen virtual keys, because a larger portion or an entire portion of the rear surface can be dedicated to accommodate the keyboard, unlike the front surface, which typically integrates a large display area. However, if both the front surface and the rear surface of a mobile device have data entry interfaces such as one or more touch screens and keys, then erroneous or accidental data entry may become a common and annoying problem because a user's fingers or another object may frequently brush against a surface integrating a data entry interface which is not in line of sight with the user. Even if a mobile device is equipped with a manual lock for a data entry interface (e.g. on a rear surface), the mobile device is still prone to accidental, unintended, or erroneous data entry by fingers or objects touching the rear surface of the mobile device when the manual lock is not active.
For example, a user facing a front surface of a mobile device hand-held by the user may accidentally touch a rear-surface data entry interface when a manual touch-screen input lock feature is inactive. The inherent likelihood of accidental data entry into the mobile device with both front and rear surface data entry interfaces may discourage device manufacturers from integrating a physical keyboard or a touch-screen virtual keyboard on a rear surface of the mobile device.
Therefore, an apparatus and a method for automatic enablement and/or disablement of a rear-face data entry in a mobile device may be beneficial to improved usability and heuristics of a mobile device design.